CALL FOR PAPERS: VANDA - Vienna Anthropology Days 2018
- Tereza Kuldova
- May 2, 2018
- 2 min read
Extreme Anthropology Research Network is organizing a panel at the Vienna Anthropology Days Conference 2018. The proceedings will be published in a special issue on Sovereignty of the Journal of Extreme Anthropology.
Sovereignty in an Unequal World
The notion of sovereignty understood as the authority of the state to govern over its territory has been resuscitated both on the Left and the Right, from Podemos to Trump, thus taking once again the center stage in political debates. We could ask if we can imagine a progressive vision of political sovereignty, such as the one sketched by William Mitchell and Thomas Fazi in their recent book, Reclaiming the State. But as anthropologists, we may first want to inquire into the general human desire and need for sovereignty, into its appeal and promise in all its different manifestations - be they individual, collective, political or religious, on in between. Rethinking sovereignty and its meaning for people across the globe becomes even more topical in a world where sovereignty has become a scarce resource and where different forms of slavery thrive - from actual slavery and human traficking to debt and different types of dependence. In a disenchanted, extremely unequal world, sovereign moments, and collective rituals capable of bringing such moments about, become rare. This panel invites papers from across anthropology, ethnology and other social sciences to think theoretically through the notion of sovereignty, while grounded in ethnographic fieldwork. And to think sovereignty through unconventional or extreme examples - think of Bataille, de Sade, Nietzsche 'in practice' and anywhere they may possibly manifest. In particular, anthropological considerations of the following themes will be welcome: (1) sovereignty and the state, (2) sovereignty and crime, murder, torture or tyranny, (3) sovereignty and religion, (4) sovereignty and economy, (5) sovereignty and excess, luxury, wasting, exploitation, (6) sovereignty and the sacred and ritual.
There will be a special issue of the Journal of Extreme Anthropology devoted to the question of sovereignty, thus offering a possible venue for publication of the conference papers.
To submit your abstract and for more information follow this link: